Since I was leaving at 3 am in the morning, I didn’t get a room to sleep in for the night. Thus I hung out in the TV room at the hostel until midnight when Raquel and I went out to La Avispa nightclub for an hour. We danced and had a good time until we had to return to pick up my backpacks and head to the bus station. The bus pulled out a little past 3 am and mostly everyone, including myself went right to sleep.
Here are the thoughts I had during the trip:
Went through immigration in Costa Rica to exit the country where I waited in line to get my passport stamped. Upon returning to the bus the driver asked me for my passport and $17 to re-board the bus. I was confused as to why the charge and showed him my ticket. He finally said something I could understand, it was for entry and exit fees. I didn’t have US dollars, only colones, so the driver called over one of the moneychangers who charge really high exchange rates. I said in Spanish, “muy malo, no gracias.” I could tell the driver knew what I was thinking and he took my 10,000 colones and gave me $3 US back. He kept my passport. At first I was unsure of things and then noticed a stack of passports by his seat, so I returned to my seat. Now the bus is moving forward and I’m a bit anxious, especially with only 3 hours of sleep. A few moments later and we were in Nicaragua. 18-wheelers were lined up for miles and the funny little bikes were transporting people back and forth.
An 8’ tall chain link fence with barbed wire separated the two countries at this location. I wondered how far did the fence go? I wondered when I would get my passport back. Just watching the people, I thought that the people in the United States could learn a lot from them about life and living. We might perceive them as a third world country and less fortunate, but is our society better or just more constrained and restricted?
I’m the only gringo aboard the bus and the staff doesn’t speak English. We’ve passed the border, but we are waiting in a long line for something. We just passed through a large machine that sprayed the bus with something and now we are going a bit faster. We’ve stopped and the people are lined up to get off.
Just imagine you’re in a country, don’t speak the language and haven’t traveled much. You exit the bus like everyone else, get your baggage from under the bus (like everyone else), follow them to stand in a line and all the while not knowing what is going on. One lady spoke with fairly good English when I asked her if she could explain what was going on. They were inspecting our luggage. It was a fun experience, even if I was nervous, because they don’t inspect everyone’s luggage. I walked up, filled out a form, and pressed a button. The light turned green and I was motioned to return to the bus. I noticed every now and then a person got a red light and they had to go inside.
The fee I paid the driver was for entry and exits to various countries we would be going through and the driver was paying it for everyone, including showing them our passports. Everyone had returned to the bus and was standing in line when the bus driver returned carrying a stack of passports. He would call out a name and we would collect our passport and board the bus again. I now have stamps from Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.
We’re driving along what I thought was the ocean at first but soon learned it was a very large lake with farms and lots of banana trees. The driver’s assistant just picked up everyone’s passports again. Oh, a note if you’re traveling in these countries, most of the ATM’s only use VISA, it’s rare to find one that uses MasterCard.
The border crossing into Honduras was much less stressful. I followed everyone off the bus, collected my large backpack and went inside, just like everyone else was doing. I am learning to just watch and do as they do. I opened my backpack when the lady approached and she poked around inside then said “buen”. I followed the others back to the bus and put my backpack back under the bus. Now we are waiting to go through something, maybe a one-lane bridge. Nope, it’s a one-lane road because trucks are lined up waiting on this side as well.
From Honduras to El Salvador was quite easy as men came onboard the bus, looked at our passports, compared them to a list, and off we went again. The distance covered wasn’t that far before the bus driver announced we had to stop at the police station. The police came onboard the bus, looked at some of our passports, and then asked three men to get their bags and follow them. I watched from inside the bus with curiosity as the police escorted the men outside to get their luggage from under the bus and go into a building. Another police officer came back to the bus looking around with a flashlight in the areas where the men had been sitting. Just an hour earlier and I was sitting next to one of them, but had moved to stretch my legs. I hope this gets resolved soon. One of the men just returned and said they other men had drugs with them. My thoughts wondered as to what would happen to them. But before long, it’s almost 7 pm now, the other two men returned to the bus. I have no idea what happened inside the building but apparently it was resolved and we are now leaving again.
The bus trip so far has been good. They served us breakfast, snacks, a great lunch, sodas, coffee, and a sandwich for dinner. How many times in ones life can you say you had breakfast in Costa Rica, lunch in Nicaragua, and dinner in El Salvador? I’m now in San Salvador standing outside the bus station where I thought I would be able to hang out until morning. It’s closed. There is a small hotel next to the bus station so I go inside and inquire about the rate. It’s the Hotel Meson de Maria and the room, which is very nice including the bathroom, was only $12 for the night. The lady who checked me in said that if I was going to Guatemala that they would come and knock on the door at 5 am to wake me so I could catch the bus. I asked in Spanish where there was an ATM that accepted MasterCard and they told me. So I walked down a dark street, found the ATM, and returned to the hotel. Now I’m typing what I wrote on the bus and uploading some photos.
